Poll

Agriculture

If you have a less-than-productive grass pasture or hayfield, following a few simple renovation techniques could increase the field’s productivity. Some things you can do include planting a legume such as red clover, controlling pests and adding lime and fertilizer. Be aware though, some techniques require you to start as early as the middle of February.
Adding legumes to pasture and hayfields has several benefits including higher yields, improved quality, nitrogen fixation and more summer growth.

The USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service in Kentucky is encouraging landowners, farmers and producers to visit their local NRCS office now to receive information and apply for conservation technical assistance and possible financial funding opportunities.

The farm looks like a storm hit recently but it’s really just my husband’s new deer deterrent technique. It seems to be working. In the past we have forgone the Irish Spring soap, human hair and coyote urine for more reliable barriers. Tomato cages, tobacco stakes, wire, spiral plastic trunk wrap, and, yes, an occasional arrangement of lawn chairs, have created distance between rutting and browsing deer.

Division of Conservation Field Representative Kimberly Bartley presents Paul Jeffiers a certificate for 20 years of service. Jeffiers currently serves as vice-chairman on the Spencer County Conservation District Board. He has served as a supervisor for 20 years.

Supervisors of the Spencer County Conservation District that were re-elected this year were sworn in by Judge-Executive Bill Karrer on Dec. 18. Supervisors sworn in were Paul Jeffiers, Alvis Shirley, Sidney Ware and Thomas Franklin Jr. Supervisors have four-year terms. The other three supervisors on the board will be up for re-election in 2014.

Preliminary U.S. Department of Agriculture reports indicate Kentucky agricultural cash receipts for January through September totaled $3.6 billion, 10 percent higher than 2011’s record level for the same period. Despite weather impacts on yield and high feed costs, agricultural economists with the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture foresee 2012’s cash receipts in the state will total $5.3 billion.

If there was anything that I came to understand more profoundly this year, it would have to be the power of instinct: mine, our animals and the forces of ideologies of which I agree and disagree. I reread my year-end column from 2011, which reminded me of where I was 12 months ago; it helps me better appreciate where I am today. It seems we didn’t do too badly, after all, and it’s all because both Andy and I recognize the power of instinct.

The Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services has announced the state’s 20 top-performing child support contracting officials and one that made significant improvement during the past year. Spencer County Attorney Ruth Hollan was one of those honored last month at a reception in Frankfort hosted by the CHFS Child Support Enforcement program.
The CSE, part of the CHFS Department for Income Support, administers child support enforcement jointly with local contracting officials for all 120 counties.

Last Sunday I felt like I was under siege. There were starlings everywhere; so much so that I feared being splattered with poop at every turn. The surprising thing about starlings is that they are everywhere yet not from here. It’s another story of one good intention going bad. Apparently back in 1890, in honor of a Shakespeare festival in New York City’s Central Park, sixty European starlings were released. The following year another forty were released and today the bird is one of the most numerous species in North America.